Medical Tourism:The Next Outsourcing Boom

In today's times of economic gloom, with companies spending more time on their bailout packages rather than improving their bottomlines,One Industry that shines amidst all these uncertain times is the "Medical Tourism Industry.

A recent forecast by Deloitte Consulting published in August 2008 projected that medical tourism originating in the US would increase over ten times than what is it currently,in the next decade. An estimated 750,000 Americans outsourced their health care in 2007, and the report estimated around 1.5 million US patients would be medical tourists who would be getting their surgery done abroad.

This outsourcing will be broadly led by low cost of healthcare in the developing countries, excellent infrastructure in terms of medical and surgical care,the long waiting time in their local markets coupled with Insurers that do not cover certain surgeries.

While this should be great news for Super Specialty Hospitals in India,Thailand,Singapore,this growth in medical tourism has the potential to cost US health care providers billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The mostPopular medical Tourism Hubs are Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, India,Jordan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, and recently, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. Out of all these countries India holds a huge advantage due to the large presence of Doctors who are very well versed in English. However many countries are now havin interpreters to assist visitors unable to converse in their local language.

Cosmetic surgery medical tourism destinations include: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico and Turkey. In South America, countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia lead on plastic surgery.Bolivia and Colombia have become the leaders in plastic surgery.According to the "Sociedad Boliviana de Cirugia Plastica y Reconstructiva", more than 70% of middle and upper class women in the country have had some form of plastic surgery.